The Football Forecast

Bundesliga Performances of the Week – Gameweek 5

After five exciting weeks of the 2015/2016 Bundesliga season, the league table is beginning to take shape with Germany’s two giants, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich taking the division by storm. Both clubs have won every single match of the campaign so far. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the table, Champions League outfit Borussia Monchengladbach have suffered a somewhat shocking opening to the campaign; losing all five of their matches in the league.

Once again there was a round of impressive individual performances over the weekend and managers from top to bottom will be hoping that their players will be able to build on that as the fixtures come thick and fast. Here are the players whom impressed me the most during the fifth gameweek:

Yunus Malli – Mainz

The former German under-21 attacking midfielder continued his solid start to the season with an unexpected hat-trick against Hoffenheim; in what was the first game of the weekend. After the visitors went 1-0 up early on in the match, Malli ceased the game by storm and earned himself the match ball in what was the performance of the weekend.

Mainz’ young prodigy now has five goals in five games in the Bundesliga; predominantly playing in a central attacking midfield position. If both Malli and lone striker Yoshi Muto continue their run of goals for a large majority of the season, Mainz will prove to be a very tough outfit for all oppositions to crack.

Sebastian Rode – Bayern Munich

The central midfielder saw himself included in what was a ‘new-look’ team for the Bavarian outfit against newly promoted Darmstadt. Pep Guardiola opted for an alteration in formation and a total of five changes from the previous league game against Augsburg. Rode seemingly took to it well and played a huge part in Munich’s comfortable 3-0 win (bagging himself a goal and an assist within less than two minutes in the process).

The 24 year-old is known for his aggression and ability to play deeper on the pitch; sitting just in front of the defence. However, he was allowed to advance further up the field during the game and therefore given more opportunities on the ball and he didn’t disappoint his manager.

Rode’s link-up play with the champions’ two new dangerous wingers, Kingsley Coman and Douglas Costa, was particularly impressive and evident throughout the course of the game.

Dominique Heintz – FC Koln

Cologne have been superb so far this season and currently see themselves in fifth spot after five games. Although they experienced a sudden blip at the hands of Frankfurt, the Billy Goats regained their winning form with a 1-0 win over the Bundesliga’s out-of-form team Monchengladbach.

Gladbach had their share of chances and could so easily have found an equaliser, had it not been for the monumental defending of Heintz and the rest of his Cologne teammates. The 22 year-old was solid and impassable during the game and was without a doubt one of the unsung heroes for their three points on the day.

At just 22 years old, there is a lot of pressure on the centre-back to maintain a high performance level throughout the whole of the season and so far he has coped enormously well with it. Only time will tell whether or not he will continue to thrive under those amounts of pressure.